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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

I rarely go shopping for clothes anymore (fabric shopping, well,
that is another story!). Every once in a
while, I will spend a few hours looking for lovely things in the department store only to be disappointed by racks
and racks of poorly made garbage.

And I know I am not the only person who sees a cheaply or
poorly made garment and thinks about how easy it would be to sew something up
that is ten times as nice.

The major exception is shoes. I do not have the slightest idea about how to make shoes. And while I would love all of the creative
possibilities that would open up, I imagine all that glue and leather would not
be very fun to work with.

I am still looking for a pair of fabulous green shoes. Red and purple are relatively easy to find
these days, but the perfect pair of green shoes has evaded me.

It seems that the color was very popular in 1948.

And the standard colors are incredibly detailed. Crossed straps, perforations, rosettes, and
scalloped edges add extra special touches that are often missing from shoes
these days (unless you have a whole lot of money to spend).

So now I would like to make my request that someone invent a
time machine so I can travel back in time and grab bunches of these fabulous
shoes. And I promise to bring back your favorites as well!

The fabric was quite a bit thicker than I had anticipated,
so I used a mid-weight black cotton for my facing pieces and eliminated the interfacing
altogether.

The pattern really does not allow for print matching. I decided to get over it, and enjoy the abstract look it created. And it turned out better than I was expecting.

I did not have any suitable
lining on hand, so I went to JoAnn Fabrics. Of course, their stock of rayon lining is extremely limited. They were out of black, so I picked up a
cranberry red color, and it turned out to be a lovely contrast.

It would seem that my fear of machine made buttonholes is
alive and well. So add another 12 bound
buttonholes to the tally. They really look nice on the front of the skirt with my contrasting pink buttons.

I am quite certain that this pattern is going to get a whole
lot of use in the near future. The options are endless! Thank you Colette Patterns!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Although there are only a few designs that have caught my eye, I am
pleased that the stash will not be increasing exponentially. Not to mention the guilt over the hoards of
patterns that are screaming for a little attention of their own as I type this post.

I mean, really, what the heck is this? Quick, describe the garment to me . . . yeah,
good luck with that. (The shoes really are fantastic, though!) Thankfully there are some helpful line
drawings, or no one would be able to tell what the dress actually looks like.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

I have had a couple of questions about my rayon pre-treating
methods, so I though I would write about my experience with the fiber. The quick answer is that I pre-wash just
about every length of fabric before cutting into it (either in the machine or by hand), and I always hand wash the items that I sew.

Take a quick peek in my closet, and it is clear that I am a
huge fan of rayon. I understand that it
is a synthesized fabric, but as it is made from plant material, I consider it to be a
natural fiber. As I am no chemist, I am
not going to get into any definitions of what constitutes a natural versus
synthetic fabrics - I just know that I love rayon and hate polyester.

Rayon (or artificial silk) breathes well and drapes
beautifully, making it perfect for reproduction vintage. I also consider it easier to work with and
care for than silk, but that is just me!

I should start by saying that I have inherited a dislike of
dry cleaning from my mother. Does anyone
know what those chemicals really do?
Because of this (and the exorbitant price), I hand wash the majority of
my clothing and 100% of the clothing that I sew myself. Crazy? Perhaps. But I am certainly not going to
leave a dress that I spend hours constructing to the mercy of a machine. At the moment I am using Eucalan (advertised as a "no rinse delicate wash" although I do rinse it out), but in the
past I have had excellent results with a liquid dish soap like Joy.

I had a couple of unfortunate experiences with purchased
rayon dresses, but did learn a little something: rayon is super wonky (yes, that’s a technical
term) when wet. I would hand wash a long,
bias cut dress with a dry clean only label and leave it to drip dry.
When wet, the dress shrunk up to be about 10" too short and 10” too
wide. To redeem the garment, I would
gently tug on the wet fabric to try to get it back to its original shape.

Rayon is often referred to as “unstable” when wet, and boy,
is that true. It also becomes very
fragile. Once I even managed to tear the
fabric with my thumb while pulling on it.

It turns out I should have left the thing to dry at its own pace. It took me longer to realize this than I care
to admit, but nine times out of ten, as
the fabric dries, it will regain its original shape.

The best advice that I can offer is to leave those dresses
alone while drip drying. If the dress is
purchased, there is not a lot you can to do guarantee that something weird is
not going to happen. You can always go
the dry cleaning route as suggested by the care instructions, but for me personally, I am not
going to spend almost as much money to clean it as the darn thing originally cost me. (Now, if I ever come across a 1940s evening gown or vintage 1950s
Dior or Lilli Ann suit from a thrift or antique store, I would obviously make
an exception.)

I moved a couple of years ago and now have a front loading
machine. Whoo-hoo! My standard operating procedure
these days is to pre-wash my yardage (including rayon) on the delicate cycle in
the machine and throw it in the dryer until it is damp, at which point I iron
out any wrinkles. If something is extra
special, I will hand wash the yardage in the sink and let it drip dry.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

This is another pattern that comes from Mr. Lappin’s stash. So, of course, I was already in love with it
before I pulled the tissue out of the envelope.

The rayon daisy print was purchased from fabric.com. It reminded me of the 1930s, and the
turquoise color was lovely, so I grabbed it.
When I saw Hollywood 1647, I thought
they would make a great pair.

And I finally found a use for one of my lace collars. Believe it or not, I picked these up from
JoAnn Fabrics, of all places. Quite a few
years ago, they marked all of their decent trims on clearance and I purchased all that I could find before they disappeared forever. They have been living
in a drawer for years. The lace trimmed
collar on the pattern illustration reminded me of their existence, so I decided
that a surface applied lace collar might work nicely.

The problem was that the collar was extremely bright white
and my fabric was not. To remedy the
problem, I decided to try a bit of tea dying.

I used a couple of Lipton black tea bags and dunked the collar pieces
for a minute or two. It worked quite
nicely! I tacked the lace to the collar
pieces by hand with some silk thread.

The pattern does not call for interfacing, which I suppose
is quite normal for a 1930s pattern. I
ended up using some cotton as a sew-in stabilizer for the collar and
cuffs. But I really was stumped when it
came to the front opening. The rayon
drapes beautifully and is rather lightweight.
I was worried that the buttonholes (mine are bound) and the buttons
needed to be stabilized in some way. But
a sew-in on the entire front piece seemed like it would be too much. I came to the decision that a thin strip of lightweight
fusible, although inauthentic, would work nicely.

I had no desire to re-space all of those buttonholes, so I
did not make my standard adjustment for a long torso. The dress is a bit high-waisted, but it
works.

Finding fourteen buttons that I liked with this fabric was
quite an adventure, and one of the reasons that this dress took so long to
complete.

I also decided to use the 3” hem allowance given to make the
dress a bit more tea-length than knee-length.

I cannot find a reference to this pattern anywhere. Does anyone else have this lovely dress pattern in their
collection?

My button selection was not my first choice and I was
concerned that the dark contrast was going to be distracting, so I decided to
make a fascinator with the leftover shell buttons. I crocheted a triangle shaped border,
expecting to sew two of the patterns together to make a diamond which would have
a sprinkling of buttons applied.

Well,
the flat diamond shape looked terrible, and the button placement did not look
right, so I pulled two corners together to give the piece a bit of shape. And I rather like how it turned out!

About Me

Chronicling my adventures in creativity. I adore sewing and knitting, mostly vintage or vintage-inspired patterns. I hope this blog will inspire others to create lovely and lasting garments that speak of a past era and yet remain timeless and elegant.